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A Columbia University student who was arrested by federal immigration agents early Thursday morning — allegedly after agents posed as police searching for a missing child to gain entry to her campus apartment — was abruptly released just hours later, following an apparent intervention by Mayor Zohran Mamdani during an unrelated meeting with President Donald Trump.
“I am safe and okay,” student Ellie Aghayeva wrote on Instagram after her release, adding she was in “complete shock” from the experience.
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What happened
Five federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security entered Aghayeva’s Columbia-owned apartment on West 121st Street at approximately 6 a.m. Thursday by claiming they were searching for a missing child, according to a petition filed by her lawyers and a statement from Columbia Acting President Claire Shipman.
“The agents gained entry by stating they were police searching for a missing child,” Shipman said. “Security cameras captured agents in a hallway showing pictures of the alleged missing child.”
Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal said the agents displayed a phony missing persons bulletin for a five-year-old girl and carried fake badges. State Assemblyman Micah Lasher said university officials told him the agents arrived in plain clothes and presented themselves as NYPD officers. A building superintendent let them in, and a roommate opened the door to Aghayeva’s apartment. Once the superintendent realized the visit had nothing to do with a missing person, he called campus security.
Aghayeva, a senior from Azerbaijan studying neuroscience and political science — and a content creator with more than 100,000 Instagram followers — quickly posted a message reading: “DHS illegally arrested me. Please help.”
The release
In a social media post Thursday afternoon, Mayor Mamdani said he had raised concerns about the arrest during a meeting with Trump about a housing project, and that the president agreed to release her immediately.
A DHS spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, said Aghayeva had been placed in removal proceedings and “released while she waits for her hearing.” McLaughlin disputed allegations that agents had posed as NYPD officers but did not address whether they had claimed to be searching for a missing child.
DHS also said Aghayeva’s student visa had been terminated in 2016 for failing to attend classes. Her attorneys said she had entered the country on a visa in or around 2016 but declined to provide further details about her immigration status. Columbia did not respond to inquiries about her visa status or enrollment history.
During his meeting with Trump, Mamdani also called on the president to drop cases against several other current and former Columbia students facing deportation for their roles in pro-Palestinian protests. Aghayeva herself has not been publicly linked to any of those demonstrations.
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Columbia’s response
In an email to the campus community, Shipman said residential staff had been reminded not to allow federal law enforcement into university buildings without a judicial subpoena or warrant. Columbia’s policy holds that an administrative warrant is not sufficient to access non-public areas of campus, including housing and classrooms.
“If you encounter or observe DHS/ICE agents conducting enforcement activities on or near campus, immediately contact Public Safety,” Shipman wrote. “Do not allow them to enter non-public areas or accept service of a warrant or subpoena.”
City Council Speaker Julie Menin and Council Member Shaun Abreu, who represents the district that includes Columbia, issued a joint statement condemning the detention. “ICE has no place in our schools and universities,” they wrote.
A pattern at Columbia
Thursday’s arrest is the latest in a series of immigration enforcement actions connected to the university. Mahmoud Khalil, a former graduate student and pro-Palestinian activist, was detained in the lobby of a university dormitory in March 2025 and is still fighting deportation. Student Mohsen Mahdawi was detained at a citizenship interview in Vermont about a month later; an immigration judge blocked his deportation last week. Another student, Ranjani Srinivasan, fled to Canada last March after federal officers appeared at her university apartment building.
The enforcement action comes after Columbia agreed to pay more than $220 million to the Trump administration over the summer, a period that had brought relative quiet to the campus.
By noon Thursday, roughly 100 people had gathered outside Columbia’s Broadway gates to protest the arrest, holding signs reading “Abolish ICE” and “Immigrants are New York.”
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